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Sunday, 29 January 2012

Craftwell - Ecraft - In My Opinion

I dont normally do this - one because I am not great at putting words down onto paper - but as my hubby says I make up for that by the amount I talk. I thought I would share my experience of Craftwell Ecraft Cutter as it may help some others out there.

It was my birthday in December as as my family knew I was after an ecraft everyone gave me birthday money (early) so I could keep an eye on a certain auction site and go for it if one should came up, as there was no way I could afford a new one.

At the beginning of December I purchased a sky blue ecraft with firmware 1.01. I made some projects things turned out ok, but I did ruin a lot of paper and card while trying to get nice cuts. I knew from forums that this was a problem other users had experience and that although I had used a Craftrobo that the ecraft was a new learning curve. I continued to practice and got ok results nothing special so I thought maybe this is not the machine for me. I put it back on the auction site and sold it, the person who brought it also did not get on with it and asked it I would take it back and refund her money, I agreed so received the Blue Menace back!

Now I really do not like to be beaten so started doing some searching on the internet, found lots of people saying they too could not get it to work efficiently, tried the ecraft site and although there was some hints and tips and videos nothing I had not tried.

The I stumbled across Purple Paper Paradise Blog found HERE. Denise who runs the blog is amazing and the saviour of my Blue Menace. She has some wonderful videos telling you how to set the paper up and what pressure you should have the blade at, how and when to use a stabilizer card etc etc

So with all this information to hand I had a weekend away looking after my friends house so took my PC and ecraft and went to play.

I was a little worried at first but following Denise's instructions I cut out the branchy tree that is on the included SD card from Core-dinations card stock, and it cut fine, I could feel a little flutter in my heart of excitement so went on to cut some frames and other images from the card - all cut fine.

Then onto the big test - using Make The Cut (MTC) I designed the sleeves for my sisters wedding invites, did a practice cut on a piece of cream 240g card and it cut fine. I have now cut all the sleeves out and just need to fold them and put the invitation inside. Brilliant! Love is growing for the machine

I then thought I would try some words to go on to cards so I played safe with a bold rockwell font and cut out a simple sentiment of LOVE and it worked fine so did the mat, then today I cut a slimmer more curvy font crazy girl blond and again it cut lovely first attempt and with no sticky mat nothing tore when I removed it from the machine.

I now have renamed by Blue Menace the Blue Miracle because I had given up on him and sent him away he returned home and we tried again and now I love it. I still have my craftrobo or Robo Cop as mum calls it and he will still be used but now I have two machines to enjoy.

Having heard so much bad stuff about the ecraft I thought I would share and let you know I think - which is it is a great machine.

So if like me you had given up or not sure about it pop over to Denise's blog have a look at her videos and see if it help you to.

2 comments:

This is wonderful news. I have a friend who got one as soon as it came out. She cut very good things but struggled with the learning curve and had to do a lot of manipulation. She had wonderful success so your news is good news as well. I was given an eclips and it is a great intricate cutter but can not do the print and cut feature with a digi image. I bought a Cameo and love the ease of it. Both are so so so so much better than the circuit and I do not have to buy cartridges. Thanks for sharing your news...I hope it reaches a lot of people.

Thanks so so much for sharing your opinion. I feel the same way. I too have an ecraft and feel since there is a learning curve, that people dismiss it too quickly without giving it a chance. They are missing a great machine! I had a cricut expressions for years and LOVE the ecraft and no mat!